Academia and athletics don’t always mix. The University of Saskatchewan has again proven it.

84 days after Brian Towriss stepped down as head coach of the U of S Huskies football team, Scott Flory was named the successor.

Close to three months have gone by with players and parents not knowing who the head coach of this team would be. I can only imagine the hesitation recruits and even current players had not knowing who was going to be in charge.

Recruitment time has been lost for a program that hasn’t won a playoff game in eight years.

Many fans thought the torch would be passed smoothly when Flory was hired as Huskies offensive coordinator in 2014.

Instead, the U of S paid a headhunting firm to search the continent high and low for the best candidate. In the end, a committee chaired by kinesiology dean Chad London chose Flory.

This hire went beyond due diligence, putting the Huskies at a disadvantage in 2017.